Thursday, August 14, 2008

Lots of questions come in regarding how to get in shape while traveling. I never thought much about it in SEAL Team, because our workouts were so engrained in us that it was like brushing our teeth – it didn’t matter where we were we always did workout. Whether hanging out on the tarmac in the Azores while waiting for our C-5 ride or in mission prep mode in Sarajevo – we did a workout daily – period.

So before you go down the natural excuse list of “I don’t have workout clothes” or the “gym at this hotel sucks” or “it’s raining outside" (never a good excuse) or whatever the little demon inside your head conjures up to convince you to hit the couch instead of Firing Up your weapon’s platform (SEAL speak for your body) – understand this: you ARE in control of your body – you just need to flick the switch in your brain and get your gut Fired UP. Once you’ve decided that you’re ready to be the master and commander of your ship – then try these simple but very effective workouts (I used these to get ready for the Hornet filming since I was traveling with family up until the day prior to the shoot).

Pushup Day: 400 pushups in one day – that’s it. I used the Perfect Pushup Mobile but you don’t have to – just drop and give yourself honest pushups sets throughout the day – in my case I paced it at 20 sets of 20 reps – and alternated between regular, close, and wide positions. Once you get comfortable with 400/day – try to ramp to 1000/day – that’s what Herschel Walker was doing in his Heisman Trophy winning days (he claims to have used no weights in his earlier training days – just bodyweight exercises). If 400 sounds too much – then start at 100. Here’s a rule of thumb that I use – do your max number of pushups – in my case it was 40 that morning – then multiply by 10 and that’s the total I did for the day. As you progress, keep re-multiplying and challenging yourself with bigger pushup numbers.

Check back in – let me know about your success – and stay tuned for a whole new set of workouts (and videos!) coming soon. In the meantime, check out our new Mobile Unit TV commercial on the site.